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Westward Expansion (1807-1912)

Settling California, New Mexico, and Oregon

The Mexican War and Political Aftermath

Summary

The main issue that rose to the fore of pre-Civil
War American politics as a result of westward
expansion was the possibility of the annexation of Texas. After the hero of the
War of 1812, William Henry Harrison, died one month into office, John Tyler
became president in 1841. Tyler hoped to build a national following through
support for his foreign policy. In 1842, Tyler's secretary of state, Daniel
Webster, negotiated a treaty with Great Britain settling a long dispute over the
boundary between Maine and Canada, to great public approval. Tyler then moved
on to the issue of annexation. Despite rampant differences of opinion between
the North and South, in 1843 Tyler began a propaganda campaign in favor of the
annexation of Texas. Tyler claimed that he had evidence that the British
intended to seize the unstable territory from Mexico if the US did not act
quickly. In efforts to garner support for annexation in the South, he played
upon fears that should the British control Texas, they would outlaw slavery,
sending cotton farmers back to southern states, and hurting the southern
economy.

Tyler and his new secretary of state, John
Calhoun secretly presented a treaty to the
Senate in early 1844 that provided for the annexation of Texas. The treaty was
defeated 35 to 16 in the Senate by those who sought to avoid sectional conflict
over the future of slavery in the West. However, the issue of annexation
dominated the election of 1844. James K. Polk ran as a Democrat, and
Henry Clay ran as a Whig. Polk advocated
immediate annexation of Texas, thus gaining the support of the pro-annexation
South. To accommodate wary northerners, Polk adjusted his economic policy
stance, and also convinced many that the addition of Texas as a slave state
would serve their interests by allowing the slaveholding South to expand
westward rather than pressing up against the border between North and South and
thus instigating conflict. Clay and the Whigs wavered on the issue of
annexation, and never established a clear platform. Polk won the presidency,
victorious by only 1.5 percent of the popular vote. While this was no mandate
for annexation, Polk and his cabinet quickly mobilized in efforts to bring the
nation behind the goal of annexation.

Aside from Texas, Polk was faced with the issue of Oregon. He proposed that the
British and Americans divide the territory at the 49th parallel. The British
had long desired a split, but had suggested the Columbia River, far south of the
49th, as the point of division. Though the US had far more settlements in
Oregon, the British claimed that discovery and exploration made it theirs. In
1846, Polk and Congress notified the British that they had terminated joint
occupation of the territory, and that Britain could either go to war over all of
Oregon or negotiate a division. Britain chose the latter, and the division was
set at the 49th parallel.

Just as the issue of annexing Oregon was being quietly settled, the issue of
annexing Texas flared up. In February 1845, both houses of Congress voted to
annex Texas. The Mexican government, for its part, had never officially
recognized Texan independence, and declared that it would consider any agreement
to join the US an open act of war. Reassured by American agents, a Texas
convention voted to accept annexation despite Mexico's warnings, and was
admitted to the US as a state in December 1845. In anticipation of conflict,
Polk ordered troops under Zachary Taylor to the border of the disputed
territory.

Commentary

The issue of annexation was tied tightly to the issue of slavery. Northerners
feared that the annexation of Texas was part of a Southern conspiracy to extend
American territory southward into Mexico and South America, thereby creating
unlimited new slave states, while the north would be unable to expand similarly
due to the presence of British forces in Canada. Southerners saw annexation as
a way to expand the nation's cotton producing region and as a means to gain an
additional two slave state votes in the Senate. Once in office, Tyler and
Calhoun did not disguise their appeals to the South for support for annexation.
Calhoun used reports that the British might pressure Mexico to recognize the
independence of Texas in return for abolishing slavery there to construct
theories about how the British might use Texas and abolition as a way to destroy
the rice, sugar, and cotton growing industries in the US and gain monopolies in
all three. Accompanying the treaty Calhoun and Tyler submitted to Congress was
a letter from Calhoun explaining that slavery was beneficial to blacks who
otherwise would fall into "vice and pauperism." The political designs
underlying these strategies were clear: use southern support to move annexation
forward. However, the North and wary southern congressmen held out for a more
organized, practical approach to annexation, which Polk provided.

As relations between Mexico and the United States soured, the issue of Texas
drove the two nations toward conflict. Mexico still hoped to regain control of
Texas, or at least keep it free from American control. Once the Americans
controlled Texas, Mexicans shared the fears of the American North that the
United States would seize other Mexican provinces and perhaps even Mexico
itself. The Mexicans feared that if this happened, they would be treated much
like southern slaves. Unfortunately for Mexico, Polk's election roused
enthusiasm for annexation beyond any previous level.

Polk's election, and support for his expansionist actions while in office,
exemplified the growing belief that America's destiny was to expand through
Texas and all the way to the Pacific Ocean. In 1845, John L. O'Sullivan, a New
York journalist, gave a name to this belief. He wrote of "our manifest
Destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of our continent which
Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty."
Proponents of Manifest Destiny often used such lofty language and often invoked
God and Nature to support expansion. Many Northern Whigs at first dismissed
Manifest Destiny as a cover for those who desired the expansion of slavery.
However, most of those who expounded on the destiny of expansion were neither
explicitly for nor against slavery. More important to them was the prospect of
opening the Pacific Ocean to trade, and preserving the agricultural nature of
the US. Most expansionists associated the industrialization accompanying early
expansion with social stratification and class struggle. The Democrats also saw
support for their political ideology in Manifest Destiny. Where tariffs and
banks would tend to support the factory system, expansion would provide farmers
with land and access to distant markets. As Americans continued to become
farmers, Democrats believed, the democratic foundations of the Union would be
preserved. Expansionists trusted that the technology of telegraphs and the
railroad would continue to make distance less and less of a concern, and
encouraged all out expansion into the lands of the West by settlement and
annexation.